The day started off on the wrong foot.
It had been pouring nonstop for the second day in a row, and according to Klaus, our ever-reliable innkeeper, this miserable weather wasn't going anywhere for at least a couple more days. I was already sick of being cooped up inside by yesterday afternoon, but slogging through knee-deep mud wasn't exactly an appealing alternative either.
Unfortunately, my options for killing time were... limited. More training, more poking around in the mechanics of the system I'd been handed — nothing new. And while the first was straightforward enough, the second was starting to prove a bit trickier than expected.
Let's start with the basics: turns out, my skills weren't nearly as simple as I'd assumed. It wasn't enough to just mindlessly repeat the same move ten thousand times and hope I'd magically cross some invisible threshold into expert territory. No miracle epiphanies. No dramatic breakthroughs. Just wasted time. If I wanted to actually get better, I had to commit — to understand what I was doing, not just do it.
The system could speed things up and help lock in progress, sure. But it wasn't going to do the heavy lifting for me. If anything, it felt a bit like the "enlightenment" phase in those cultivation novels — only not as sudden and mystical. More like a slow, steady climb. Plus, I didn't have to eat any questionable herbs and trip out in a cave for three weeks, so that was a bonus.
Even after I figured out the basic pattern for leveling up a skill, trying to push it further on my own was like dragging a boulder uphill. Everything about it screamed one thing: if I wanted to keep growing at the same pace, I needed a mentor. Where to find one? That was a whole different headache. But lacking any evidence to the contrary, I'd have to fall back on good old-fashioned logic for now.
The situation with synthesis points was similar. I'd been hoarding them, sure — but I didn't have the know-how to actually use them. Thankfully, the system wasn't shy about smacking me in the face with what I lacked. It pointed out exactly which skills I'd need to properly access the crafting interface: blacksmithing, alchemy, tailoring, woodworking — and a mountain of other specialties branching off from those core professions.
Even with accelerated learning, mastering all of that was going to take an absurd amount of time. The kind of time that made you seriously regret not having a stash of shadow clones or some other equally overpowered workaround.
Well, I guess I'd better get moving before boredom kills me.
"Going somewhere, Mark?" Klaus asked, giving my outfit a once-over with a skeptical glance.
"Out back. Thought I'd get a bit of training in," I said, tapping the shaft of my spear with my index finger for emphasis. "Why, something up?" I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.
"Rosi asked me to tell you — there's a letter from the guild. Addressed to you."
"Got it. I'll swing by after I'm done." I gave Klaus a casual wave and stepped out into the rain.
***
Spear Proficiency Increased
Leaning tiredly against the wall, I opened my stat window out of habit, eyes scanning over the latest updates to my progress. The core four stats were still climbing smoothly, which was a relief. Perception had been the trickiest to figure out — I had to put in a lot of trial and error before I cracked the logic behind how to level it.
Turns out, the key was multitasking. The more I focused on several things at once — or better yet, ran movement calculations in my head during combat — the faster it grew. Stamina, by contrast, was way more straightforward. Just run, jump, fight, and your body does the rest. Simple, brutal, and effective.
Mana, though… yeah, that was another story. Apparently, being dropped into a magical world doesn't guarantee you a ticket to Wizard School. So far, all my attempts to unlock anything remotely resembling spellcasting had flopped hard.
Nice to meet you — I'm Mark, the guy who can't do magic in a world powered by it.
Still, it wasn't entirely hopeless. There was always the possibility of becoming one of those "Vision bearers." I hadn't written that off just yet. Who knows — maybe someone down the line could help me unlock that path.
Fingers crossed.
Name: Mark
Health: 380 / 380
Mana: 100 / 100
Title:
Novice Monster Hunter (+1 to all attributes)
Pushing the Limits (+2 to all attributes)
Level: 18
Attributes:
Strength: 20 (23)
Agility: 27 (30)
Perception: 16 (19)
Stamina: 20 (23)
Mana: 7 (10)
Unassigned Stat Points: 79
Abilities:
Skills:
Spear Mastery: Lv. 12 (Novice)
Short Blade Mastery: Lv. 4 (Beginner)
Pain Tolerance: Lv. 9 (Beginner)
Field Medicine: Lv. 1 (Beginner)
Campfire Cooking: Lv. 6 (Beginner)
Beast Handling: Lv. 9 (Beginner)
Coordination: Lv. 9 (Beginner)
Intuition: Lv. 5 (Beginner)
Two weeks. Just two weeks — and already this much progress.
The average monster wasn't a threat anymore. The mid-tier ones still needed caution, sure, but the last few encounters had left me unscathed. Abyss Mages, though? Still a hard no. Those bastards were a whole different league. If my leveling pace stayed consistent, I might be able to stand toe-to-toe with one in a month or two — but not yet. Definitely not now.
And it's not like they're the only dangerous things out there. That Level 25 Mitachurl that nearly turned me into paste? Yeah, Razor had to bail me out of that mess not too long ago.
So yeah, more grinding. Lots more grinding. I had no intention of being the weak link in this world.
That said, staring at stat numbers only gets you so far. Eventually, I wanted to know what those numbers actually meant in real-world terms.
Strength was the easiest to figure out — my inventory helpfully pointed out that every point in Strength gave me an extra 10 kilos of carrying capacity. Agility was trickier, but after a few stretches and agility drills, it was clear I'd stopped moving like a two-by-four. Perception and Stamina were both pretty self-explanatory once you started paying attention to how they worked in practice.
And Mana… well. Hope dies last, right?
I let my gaze linger on the spear in my hand for a moment before letting out a quiet sigh and returning it to my inventory.
After everything that had happened recently, my attitude toward staying under the radar had… shifted. I still wasn't about to flaunt my abilities for every passerby to see — but I wasn't going to go out of my way to hide them either. Word about the strange guy who's been making the local wildlife population disappear had probably already spread throughout the Order. And thinking Eula wouldn't report me? That would be naive. She's a Knight-Captain sworn to the state. I'm just a suspicious outsider with unknown origins and abilities that don't exactly scream "normal."
Throw in the whole tense situation with Snezhnaya — the local equivalent of "scary cold-hearted foreigners" if you asked the average Mondstadter — and it was no wonder even the rank-and-file soldiers were giving me side-eye lately. No way they'd just let all this slide.
Still lost in thought, and carefully avoiding the worst of the muddy patches along the road (curse this weather), I eventually made it to the Guild outpost — where I found Rosmarin looking thoroughly unamused.
"Took you long enough," she said dryly, not even bothering to look up right away as she flipped a page in her book.
"Well, I was curious about this mysterious letter you mentioned," I replied, stepping up to the desk and crossing my arms in front of my chest.
"You'll see for yourself." With a soft snort, she reached under the table and pulled out a small envelope sealed with wax.
"To the recipient only"
Sender: Fischl von Luftschloss Narfidort
Recipient: Mark, Monster Hunter
Date: 17th of September, Year 1002 After the Founding of the Knights of Favonius
Breaking the seal, I carefully unfolded the letter, glancing up briefly at Rosmarin's curious stare before reading.
I, Princess of Condemnation, Fischl von Luftschloss Narfidort, do hereby proclaim — he whose name echoes the frostbitten winds of the farthest steppes, Mark, Bane of Monsters — know that the seeds of prophecy carried upon glacial winds have found root within the pages of shadowed omens. Rejoice, noble warrior, for thou hast been granted both honor and fortune — the sacred privilege of standing before the blessed form of the Prinzessin der Verurteilung, cast into your realm after an exile long endured.
I reread the letter. Then again. Then once more, just to be sure I wasn't having a stroke. Finally, I looked up at Rosmarin with a helpless, wordless expression that practically screamed, Please tell me what the hell that just meant.
She chuckled under her breath, clearly enjoying my pain, and held out a hand expectantly.
"She's requesting a personal meeting," Ros said after a long pause, her voice flat and unmistakably amused.
"Is it... mandatory?" I asked, frowning.
"No," she said, shaking the letter in front of me for emphasis, "but with this, it'll be way easier for you to get into the capital. Just don't take longer than a couple of months to follow up. They'll stop waiting."
"Got it." I slid the letter back into its envelope and stored it in my inventory. "Thanks. I'm heading out."
"Yeah, yeah. Shoo." Rosmarin waved her hand lazily, like she was swatting away a particularly persistent fly.
Back at the tavern, I exchanged a few words with Klaus, ordered a heavy late lunch, and headed straight up to my room. As I stepped inside, Rimuru — half-dozing on the bed — perked up at the sound of the door, blinked at me sleepily, let out a low, gurgling noise of acknowledgment, and promptly drifted off again.
Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I took a moment to reassess the situation.
Word about me had spread much faster than I'd expected. Whether that was good or bad was still up for debate, but given the current circumstances... I was leaning toward bad. Let's face it: I was still weak. Barely strong enough to handle the average monster, and if I ran into someone with a Vision, I wouldn't stand a chance. I'd be paste before I could even think about defending myself.
The power gap was just too wide. And if my memory served me right — and assuming this world still mirrored the game's structure — then Eula wasn't even considered top-tier. At best, she was a solid mid-level combatant. Which, frankly, just made things worse.
Sooner or later, the Fatui would start ramping up their campaign to collect the Archons' gnoses. And around that time, the Traveler — either Aether or Lumine, depending on the roll of fate — would wake up somewhere in Mondstadt, lost and disoriented, and begin their search for their missing sibling.
There weren't many branches on the tree of possible futures. Whichever way I looked at it, they all led to the same conclusion: I needed to get stronger. Fast. No wasted time. Maximum efficiency.
Funny… I think I finally understand what it feels like for those isekai protagonists — the ones who suddenly find themselves smack in the middle of a story beloved by millions. It's a strange feeling. Not good, not bad. Just... strange.